The accident in the central city of Jingzhou was caught on CCTV footage.

The woman, identified in media reports as 30-year-old Xiang Liujuan, had reached the top of the escalator when the section of landing platform she had stepped onto suddenly collapsed, trapping her inside the still-moving machinery.

The footage shows that Xiang managed to push her son into the arms of shop attendants near the top of the escalator. The attendants tried to pull her to safety, but Xiang fell into the mechanism and was killed.

Media reports say her body was recovered four hours later, after crews disassembled the escalator.